IT skills gap set to soar; how to handle June 2014’s Labour Market Statistics

With UK output finally back above its pre-crisis levels, the market place is decidedly more confident. This will hopefully set the tone for a productive few months for UK jobseekers and recruiters.

For the meantime however, we must continue to endure the current ‘vacancy vacuum’, which represents a mammoth hurdle. The plummet of permanent candidate availability has been a prominent theme over the last quarter, prompting our latest blog series addressing sustainable solutions to attract and retain talent without increasing salaries.

In a more recent development, the latest ‘Recruitment Trends’ from APSCo unveil spectacular growth rates for both permanent and contract jobs across a range of sectors and, for the first time in over a year, the start of a steady and long awaited rebound in the IT sector.

Similarly, the latest KPMG/Market Technology Survey revealed that it sustained a quarter of robust growth from April to June 2014, with the expansion of business activity rising at its fastest pace since the onset of the financial crisis in 2007. Tudor Aw, Head of Technology at KPMG, stated that ‘the UK technology sector is firing on all cylinders with sustained growth outstripping the wider economy’.

In their latest report, Spring Technologies depicted a significant increase in senior IT vacancies over the last quarter, a sure sign that businesses are beginning to invest heavily in IT projects again. The second quarter saw the permanent market grow by 8% more vacancies than prior year, and the contract market saw a 30% increase in vacancies than prior year.

However, these statistics are a tell-tale sign of a potential skills gap pitfall. Research reveals that technology companies are not only expecting an upturn in year-ahead expectations for business activity, but they are also planning to ‘loosen the purse strings’ with more than 4 in 10 (43%) also declaring an intention to hire more staff. Our telling contract/permanent market statistics show the industry attempting to ‘plug gaps’ with contract placements whilst continuing its search for appropriate permanent candidates.

Over 30% of employers are not expecting to get the ‘suitably qualified’ applicants they need for their technical or IT projects (IET survey, April 2014), and so the ‘IT skills gap is set to soar’. As the demand for IT continues to increase, it is imperative that employers develop an innovative attraction and retention strategy to source the best candidates.